Driving vs Flying

[mickeymom24]

Hi everyone! I am looking forward to my second trip to Disney World this coming year thanks to the great military discounts they are offering this year. This will be our childrens first trip. So although my hubby has agreed to going to DW we have not discussed anything else yet as this was barely suggested yesterday. I know I still have a lot of research to do. We will be traveling with 4 kids age 3, 7, 8, and 17 from El Paso, Texas. Looks like it would be 25 hours of driving according to google.That's a lot of driving! We have an SUV but my oldest always complains on long trips since he sits in back and his knees are up to his chin while sitting back there. I am going to try and sell my husband on the idea of flying. Other than the obvious, time, what other selling points can I tell him? The rate for all of us to fly would be about $2100. I really hope I can persuade him.

 

[Tabatha]

We will be goign to WDW in Sept. and I am looking forward to driving! Live in Kansas and its approximatly 23hr drive. I have actually driven the drive 3 times round trip (once completly alone) and it is so much fun!

Obviously the time is not great, but its fun to see the extra things that we would never experince if we had not driven - St Louis arch, Nashville, Smokey Mountains, etc..

HOWEVER - my kids are still young and are not "eating knees/dash" for a full day, so for your argument you could mention

• mileage/wear and tear on vehicle
• comfort
• parking costs
• toll costs
• possibility of an accident (flat tire, or worse)
• being tired before vacation even begins
• possibility of getting lost & the arguments that come along with
• I4 traffic
• possibilty of gas costs increasing back to *gulp* $4/gallon
• backseat fighting
• radio wars
• tendency to overpack
• car sickness

whoever wins this battle have a great time in WDW!!

 

[dbarker]

Hi everyone! I am looking forward to my second trip to Disney World this coming year thanks to the great military discounts they are offering this year. This will be our childrens first trip. So although my hubby has agreed to going to DW we have not discussed anything else yet as this was barely suggested yesterday. I know I still have a lot of research to do. We will be traveling with 4 kids age 3, 7, 8, and 17 from El Paso, Texas. Looks like it would be 25 hours of driving according to google.That's a lot of driving! We have an SUV but my oldest always complains on long trips since he sits in back and his knees are up to his chin while sitting back there. I am going to try and sell my husband on the idea of flying. Other than the obvious, time, what other selling points can I tell him? The rate for all of us to fly would be about $2100. I really hope I can persuade him.

Welcome to the Dis.

We are from Waco and have driven a couple of times. We fly now. For us, it is a full 2 day road trip. For you, it will be a 3 day trip. Not only do you have the expense of gas for the vehicle, you will also have the expense of meals and lodging while driving. That adds up. Plus, you will still be in Texas after the first day of driving. Add up the expense of driving: the gas to and from FL, loding for 4 nights, meals for 6 days.

The main reasons we fly is for the convenience. We stay on property, so we use ME and we don't have to drive (or get lost ) anywhere while visiting WDW. We love WDW transportation.

 

[Belle & Ariel]

Something that clinched the driving/flying choice for us was the added cost of checked luggage. We found good airfare rates, but our family of 5 had 7 bags that added $350 to the cost. Our gas did not cost that much, so we drove.
Is it possible to take a seat out of your vehicle so that your son has more legroom? My son is 6-3 and he complains of the same thing.

 

[katyjeka]

We just got back from a cruise this past Dec. and we flew from Pittsburgh to Miami. Flying is a lot quicker, but this year we are driving to Orlando. We have 3 dd's, and will probably rent a car, to save the mileage on ours. Flying has changed so much in the past few years, and is always so hectic. I understand the extra security, and am glad for it, but there has got to be an easier way to board a plane w/kids. Our youngest, 3 at the time, had not signed her passport. We were pulled aside, and asked to have her sign it. HONEST. We had not put our shoes in bins yet, so our hands were full with shoes, bags, ids and we had to convince a 3 year old to sign her passport.(She was a little upset at this point) After this, my dh said no more flying until they make airports a little easier. I also hate paying for my bags. I can understand the charge for more than one bag per passenger, but I believe we should be allowed one bag free, per ticket. I'm actually looking forward to the car trip. Obviously, don't show your hubby my post. How do you convince him to fly?? Take a day trip w/all the kids, somewhere boring, to give him an idea of what a long trip will be like. It may be all the convincing he needs. Good luck, and have a great trip.

 

[summermac]

Like the others, we are driving. Most of it boils down to the baggage fee which as mentioned will cost as much as what I figure our gas to be. That baggage fee for checked bags when it's your ONLY bag is a bunch of crap. I can not take care of two kids, a car seat and FOUR carryons. I do not want to put 2 oz of liquid in 10 different containers. I don't want to mess with security with my kids. And so on.

But um, 24 hours is a loooong time to be in a car. We're looking at "only" about 16.

 

[Belle & Ariel]

Katyjeka,
We were on your roll call on the Jewel in December. What a small world!
I saw your screen name here and remembered it from cruise critic. (I remembered it because we have friends named Jicka).
Just wanted to say hi.

 

[katyjeka]

Hi. Were you on the cruise? Did you enjoy it?? I assume your planning a WDW trip? It is a small world. Janice

 

[Corjack]

We flew last year to Disney for the first time adn it was MARVELOUS!!! We had a 7mo and 4yo. It went suprisingly easy.

However this year will will most likely be driving. We found reasonablly priced flights but after paying to preselect our seats(only way to assure our seats r together), paying for long term parking and bag fees it is more than double what it would be to drive(with a motel stay).

Now if Gas shot up to $4 a gallon again, we would fly!

Jackie

 

[3boymthr]

Hi,

We have relatives in Lubbock, Dallas area, Bulverde and Leakey. DH wanted to visit his DB and aunts/uncles in Lubbock. He wanted to drive I was like - Are you nut's!!?? It's going to take us more than a week to drive. DH contended it was going to cost too much to fly so being the math nut that I am I did a cost benefit analysis using an spreadsheet I created in excel, it looked sort of like this:

Drive Fly
Hotel Cost $$$$$ $$$
Fuel/Airfare $$ $$$$$$$
Oil Changes $
Mileage Cost $$
Car Rental 0 $$
Vacation Time $$$$$$ $$$


I did not factor in food as no matter what we'd have to eat and we'd eat sandwiches when on the road. You could add in the additional cost of additional days of hotel food but to be fair subtract out what you would spend if you ate at home.

Instead of the mileage cost you could also factor in to the driving side the cost of renting a large van so that you'd all be comfortable.

When I priced tickets to fly from Boston to Lubbock and it was going to cost us $5,000 for three people - okay no matter what at this price it would be cheaper to drive. Eureka! I saw the button that said price nearby airports and so we then priced Boston to DFW total cost $650 + cost of rental car $175. We would have to drive 5 hours to Lubbock, but this would also allow us to visit the relatives in the Dallas area. Yeah! I won we flew to Dallas.

Of course, this was before the airport fees went up a couple of years ago and before airlines started charging for baggage so you'd need to figure that in.

I'm trying to the same thing again, only not having as much luck I need to get 5 people to Orlando from the Boston area for under $600 I don't think I'm going to be able to do it. But I'm signed up for fare watcher with most of the online ticketing sites so I may get lucky.

 

[LittleMissMagic]

Ah, well that's a long drive (we have an 8-hr drive, so we just suffer through it - have flown in the past, though). Flying definitely has a speed advantage. With young kids, car rides often mean a bunch of screaming and potty stops - although mapquest says it's a 25-hr drive, it could up to take 27 hours if you're driving straight there, considering bathroom, gas, and meal stops. That's exhausting! You'd probably want to get a hotel room (two, considering your party is too large for just one.... though you might smuggle a few kids in if you don't want to fork out the extra cash) and spend the night half-way, which would add to the cost of the trip.

By the time you add gas, meal, drink, and hotel costs for a family of 6, it will probably equal close to the amount of flying - or close enough that you'll want to fly just to save time and exhaustion.

Also, with Disney's Magical Express, you won't have to rent a car (if you're staying on Disney property, of course). You also won't have to go through baggage claim. You can go straight into the parks if you want.

Maybe after all of those cons, your husband will decide on flying.

Good luck! And have fun at WDW!

 

[Tammysue5]

We have driven the last 2 vacations... From NW Illinois. 21 hour drive. mapquest said 19... the bathroom breaks and all... actually we needed to stop for me rather than the kids... ) We did it straight through.... we did not get lost or divorced the whole trip down or back... (well, actually we did not get lost UNTIL we got into WDW... then we got lost) W/a family of 6 (Kids... DS19, DS17, DD9 and DD6) it was crazy expensive to fly. We pack 'heavy' so driving worked for us. We also took water w/us... which in itself saved a bundle. We took breakfast food. (yes we were on the DDP but the extra food in the room was nice) We packed a lunch for the 'first meal... and snacks for the rest of the trip. We started out about 3pm (right after school...we had slept while they were at school) they were tired early on... and it was great (and we saved time traveling at night) we only needed to stop for 1 meal... breakfast) The boys brought their XBox 360 and played on the 1 DVD screen and the girls had the dual DVD player to watch movies or play games. They switched places a couple times. It was not so bad.

 

[Tammysue5]

I should also mention that despite higher gas prices last August/Sept. we spent less than $700 for the trip down AND back. We drive a Yukon Denali XL... so we were VERY pleased w/the money we saved.

However, we are looking at flying to see how that goes.

 

[ZombiesTableFor5]

<snip> We were pulled aside, and asked to have her sign it. HONEST. We had not put our shoes in bins yet, so our hands were full with shoes, bags, ids and we had to convince a 3 year old to sign her passport.(She was a little upset at this point).

This was completely unnecessary! SharkyGoddess told me about this happening so I checked the Passport Office (travel.state.gov/passport/fri/pubs/pubs_854.h t m l ) and it clearly states that children MAY sign if they want to (or are able) but the parent or legal guardian is all that is required for the passport to be valid. If it were me I would be contacting the TSA supervisor and having the idiot agent who forced your baby to sign her passport fired.

Yes - the DISboard requirement for 10+ posts to be able to include links stopped this - so just stitch the URL back together to read the article on the State Department's web site.

Babboo

 

[katyjeka]

We were surprised as you dont even need a passport to fly within the US. We just got them for our girls, as it makes cruising so much easier. It does make driving a lot more appealing. Janice

 

[katyjeka]

We were surprised as you dont even need a passport to fly within the US. We just got them for our girls, as it makes cruising so much easier. It does make driving a lot more appealing. (sorry about the above post, hit the send button by mistake. Janice

 

[mickeymom24]

I have not flown for over 10 years plus the last time being to DW. It seems like it will be a lot of work to fly. If we do fly it will be thru Southwest Airlines since that is the least expensive right now. Any experiences with SWA? Also I don't really understand how the Magical Express works if I fly through Southwest. Everytime I try to research my 3 yo starts throwing an " I only want attention from mommy!" fit.
I am starting to think it might be easier to drive instead of flying but I definetly can see myself wanting to be institutionalized after a few days of being locked up in a car with my kids!

 

[mickeymom24]

Tammysue5 where did you stay? I am assuming you had 2 rooms?

 

[Belle & Ariel]

Katy,
We loved the ports but were very disappointed with the food. It was our second try with NCL and probably our last. We met a lot of nice people and had a great time.
We are always planning a trip to WDW. We have annual waterpark/DisneyQuest passes right now--have been 3 times and are going again in May. In December we will get annual passes for the theme parks and go a few times. We are in the DVC and love Disney, so go a lot.
What did you think of the cruise? Were you in the big group that went to Casa Dorada the first port? We were.
What are your Disney plans?

 

[teresajoy]

. Any experiences with SWA?!

I love Southwest! They give you one (or two?) free bags, and their prices are usually the cheapest! And they gave us snacks!

As far as the driving versus flying debate, we are trying to figure out what we are going to do this year too.

We would have to rent a minivan,(which so far looks like it would be around $700 for our trip) to have enough room for us all, and then there is the gas.
But, then we wouldn't have to rent a car when we got to Florida.
And, I wouldn't have to pay the baggage fees.
If I find a cheap enough fare, we'd fly, but I don't mind the drive (it's about 19 hours for us.)